The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the the method the state Elections Office used to order an insufficient number of ballots in the 2012 general election should have undergone an official rule-making process instead of just being an internal management decision. The Green Party of Hawaii sued Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago and the state in December 2012, asking the courts to stop him from conducting another election until there were new rules in place to prevent the type of voter disenfranchisement that occurred that November. In all, 24 precincts ran out of ballots on Election Day, leading to long lines and some voters abandoning the effort. The lawsuit says 57 voters were denied the right to vote, and ballots had to be rushed to dozens of other precincts that ran low.
Maui attorney Lance Collins filed the case on behalf of the Green Party and seven individual plaintiffs from around the state.
“This clarification strongly supports the purpose and intent of the Hawaii Administrative Procedure Act – which is to provide openness and transparency in government,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
Instead of using the number of registered voters as a base and multiplying it by a percentage of around 80 percent, the 2012 ballot order method used the voter turnout for the 2012 primary election and multiplied it by 125 percent, the justices explained in their order.
Full Article: Court Rules Against Elections Office In Ballot Shortage Case – Civil Beat News.